He said he was prepared to take the boos from fans if it meant protecting his players and was man enough to say he now understands some of them on Tuesday because , on reflection, Saido Berahino was probably looking fresher than Benik Afobe when he took the troubled striker off.

“I would rather no-one booed me, that’s my first choice,” he quipped. “I’m not suggesting I like to be booed.

“But in order to protect the team’s confidence and the players’ confidence, if it helps them, then I’m quite prepared to accept that on my shoulders rather than on theirs.

“That’s how anyone who wants to be a good leader should be.

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“I would rather me get the stick and have to deal with it if it means they can go out and perform with more freedom.”

He continued: “I think I left the ground at a quarter past 12 on Wednesday night and then I was in at half past six on Thursday morning, so I was struggling to keep my eyes open at one stage to even look a bit enthuasiastic.

“But then you look at what you’ve got to do and you have to put aside all that emotion and have a bit of clarity as to how we move forward.

“If you let poor results fester and are criticising players openly all the time, then the only thing that will happen is more bad results will come your way.